New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-05-15
TIE LANDLOCKED SEA.

"The Washington Post" challenges THE
TRIBUNE to explain how British seal fishers
can be kept out of the Behring Sea. Nothing
can be simpler. Let them be seized as they
were last summer, when they are caught
poaching on American preserves and let the
vessels engaged in the traffic be condemned
and sold If the seal fisheries in Behring Sea
are not protected they will be ruined by
lndscriminate slaughter, precisely as the North
Atlantic seal fisheries have been impaired.
TIE TRIBUNE has not claimed, as The Wash
ipgton Post" represents, exclusive jurisdiction
for the United States over the North Pacific
Ocean, but only over that portion of the land
locked Behrlng Sea which was coded by Russia.
The Treaty of 1867, Article l., Is explicit in
defining the deep-sea boundary OF the Alaska
purchase. 1t conveys territory and dominion
in the regions and waters formerly owned oy
Russia and establishes eastern and western
limits. The latter is a pelagic boundary thus
defined:
The western limit within which the territories and do
mnion conveyed contained passes through point
in Behring's Straits the parallel OF sxy-hye degrees
thirty north latitude at its intersection by the
meridian which passes midway between the Islands oil
Krusensen Igualook and the island OF Ratmanod or
Noonarbook, and proceeds due north without
Limitation into the same Frozen OCEAN
The same western limit. beginning at the same
initial point proceeds thence In acourse nearly southwest
through Behring's Straits and Behringsea so as to pass
between the northwest point the Island OF St
Lawrence and southeast point OF Cape Choukotski
10 the meridian OF 172 west longtude thence from inc
intersection that meridian In southwestery drec
tion an "a 10 pass midway between the island Alton
and the Copper Island Of the Kormandorsk coupet or
group in the Pacific Ocean. To the meridian OF
1890 west longitude so as include In the territory
the whole OF the Aleuan Islands east OF that
meridian.
The convention IN reality ia deed of partl-
ton of the waters of Behring Sea. A pelagic
line is drawn between the initial and terminal
points the waters west of that line are under
Russian control and those on the east are
under the dominion Of the United States. and
Congress by the act approved July 81. 1868,
extended the jurisdiction Of the Government
not only to the mainland and the Aeutian
Islands, but also to the "waters of the terri
tory coded to the United States by the En-
peror of Russia Ii further proof be needed
of this propo sition. the speeches OF Senator
Sumner on the Alaska purchase can be cited.
He distinctly referred to this deep-sea limit as
the new western boundary of the United States
the dividing line which separates Asia from
America All these facts were fully set forth
several months ago in an admir- able letter to
THE TRIBUNE by Mr.. Henry w. Elliott. of the
Smithsonian Institution, author of one of the
best books on Alaska.
"The Washington Post -" remarks that up to
the present time 1t has been supposed that the
oceans belonged TO all mankind like the sky
over them, and that nobody could mOnOpoze
them. 1t then loosely adds that if Russia
gave us a warranty deed to the North Pacific
Ocean to the exclusion of the rest of the world.
Mr.. Bayard ought to hurry up and buy the
Atlantic Ocean of Norway so as to confine
England to tropical seas. When our genial
contemporary has recovered from this ouiburst
OF fun we commend it to haf-hour's study Of
a good family atlas and the volume of the
Revised Statutes containing the text OF public
treaties.